english

As one of the leading European intellectuals and one of the few women in digital technology and media, who combines design, philosophy and technological advances in her work, Dr. Regula Staempfli participates in various institutions, foundations and institutions.

Dr. Regula Staempfli is based in Brussels and works as a political philosopher and lecturer in Germany, France and Switzerland (Design2Context, University of Berne, Swiss Journalist School, Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, SIPB, Frauenseminar Bodensee, EHESS Paris etc.) teaching in German, English and French. She is the author of many textbooks and various scientific articles dealing, among other issues, with democratic theory, European political decision making, women's history, design, political communications and political philosophy.

Dr. Staempfli is a member on various boards such as IFG-Ulm (as director), the Executive Committee of the Fachochschulen Cologne, the Conseil d’éthique, the Women’s Archives in Switzerland (from 1999-2011) and www.premsela.org (dutch platform for design and fashion). Regula Staempfli is also an regular Evaluator/Expert for the European Commission.

The Swiss born and Brussels based Political Scientist is known in Germany and in Switzerland through her books, columns and outspoken contributions on TV, for the Radio and in the print media. She is a columnist for Radio1 in Zuerich, columnist at www.news.ch, columnist at blickamabend.ch, the Politics-Expert for Radio 24 in Zuerich, Media-Expert for www.kleinreport.ch, the German feminist magazine “Emma” and Columnist for “Sonntag” and “Leben&Glauben” etc see www.regulastaempfli.ch. Regula Staempfli is the mother of three underaged children.

„Ulm ...not just a place on Google maps...“ A personal report

Regula Staempfli, Dr.phil., Political Scientist/Lecturer/ Author see www.regulastaempfli.ch

Anyone who ever stepped into the marvellous Max Bill building overlooking the small German city of Ulm will know immediately what Walter Benjamin meant when he described the „aura“ of places, art and artefacts.

Ulm and the Ulm school were always something else. When Walter Gropius suggested to Otl Aicher to name the new School “Bauhaus Ulm”, the thorough and conscientious Gestalter Otl Aicher declined. He declined due his uneasiness about creating a fixed Corporate Branding. Otl Aicher wanted something else: “anyone with ears to hear and eyes to see had to acknowledge that esthetics alone represented an escape instead of a responsibility” (Otl Aicher in Bauhausstreit 1919-2009). From the start, Ulm’s scholars, students and professors have contributed to design political responsibility in form and actions.
What Ulm meant and could be is best described in the monumental book by the designer René Spitz, who lead Ulm’s advisory committee and who documented how much turmoil and creativity shaped Ulm. Looking back Ulm never was a quiet but always an inspiring place. 2010 will be another Ulm year in the sense that it is a year of change, even of rupture. On Nov 10th the IFG Ulm GmbH, the Advisory Committee submitted its collective resignation.
What happened? Otl Aichers’ analysis that Ulm tore itself apart mainly through the divide between aestheticists and moralists is today more true than ever. The collective resignation a few days ago marked the impossibility for the Advisory committee of fulfilling its tasks in the Ulm spirit.

From 2003 onward the Advisory Commitee under René Spitz and from 2007 under Regula Staempfli promoted, supported and developed the International Design Competition „Designing Politics – the Politics of Design“. These were rewarding Ulm years in the best sense of tradition and many international and interesting projects and people got involved in the Ulm process. The moral and design heritage of Ulm was incarnated in the Advisory Committee and its many supporters.

When, in 2010, the private Foundation HFG Ulm decided to change the course of Ulm radically towards Corporate Branding, towards commercialization of Ulm, towards making Ulm not an international place rather than a regional playground for people who have no interest in Ulm but only in the brand, the collective resignation of the Advisory committee was inevitable. Despite numerous efforts, meetings, practical and concrete suggestions, hours of charitable work, planning of publications, planning of hearings on the part of the Advisory committee, none of the great heritage Ulm was to be saved in the new concept of the private foundation HFG Ulm. Ulm was always more than a brand, it was and is an ideal and an idea.

Despite the ideal of Ulm now disappearing from the map, Ulm will continue its heritage. Ulm is part of Dessau, Ulm is part of Weimar, well Ulm is to be found in N.Y., in Amsterdam, everywhere that designers are aware of their political responsibility in designing the world around and – partly- even within us.

The great political philosopher Hannah Arendt missed “her” Germany very much. A Germany that should never again exist like the one she grew up in, but a Germany that she kept in her mind and her heart. When asked where she feels most at home, she answered: “Home is where I can understand and where I am understood”.

Ulm as Ulm means understanding and communicating throughout the world. It is a place where designers meet, think, show courage, communicate, act. So Ulm as we know it has perhaps, with the collective resignation of the last Advisory Committee, disappeared on google maps…but Ulm is alive and kicking….

Die Autorin Dr. Regula Stämpfli war von 2005-2010 Mitglied des Fachbeirats IFG Ulm GmbH, ab 2007 Indendantin. Der Erfahrungsbericht ist ein persönlicher Artikel der Autorin Dr. Regula Stämpfli.Designing Politics,
the Politics of Design

quotes

“The Vatican of Materialism sits in the IMF, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs”
(© Regula Stämpfli 2010)

“Celebrity unfortunately beats Competence any time”
(© Regula Stämpfli Brüssel/Bern)

„Designing politics rather than designed politics and reflections upon the Politics of Design are key figures for future democracies“
(© Regula Stämpfli Brüssel/Bern)

„In media, ergo sum“
(© Regula Stämpfli Brüssel/Bern)

"The 11th commandements for the US, the WHO and the Pharma-Industry: “Thou shall live as long as possible to consume as much as possible“."
(© Regula Stämpfli Brüssel/Bern)

Foto: Fotograf Marcel Nagel, Lesung Amriswil, 1.12.2007

Juli 2010 Jahrbuch KiSD: Logo für Design

7.10.2010: Lesung Frankfurter Buchmesse (Fotos: www.kairosenstein.de)

articles in english only

Hannah Arendt - Many in one, pdf

31.10.2010: Note to Obama: Don’t bargain with your political assassins , see http://themoderatevoice.com

17.9.09: Designing Wallstreet, pdf, www.hfg-ulm.de

2005: Democracy without motherhood? Public space and gendered discourses in Swiss postwar politics, pdf

books in english only

17.10.2009
english version
The world's fairest city, yours and mine - features of urban living quality
ISBN 978-3-03778-186-9

30.9.2009
Metahaven
Uncorporate Identity
Velden, Daniel van der; Kruk, Vinca (Eds.) 2010,
Approx. 400 p. 200 illus. in color., Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-03778-169-2

About this book
Uncorporate Identity is an anthology of Metahaven projects, ideas and models. A science fiction book about design, it describes corporate identitybeyond certainty, entwined with politics, speculation and information
networks. Carved out from the multipolar geopolitical spaces of the early 21st century and the paradoxical leftovers and peripheries of ancient regimes and ruined ideologies, Uncorporate Identity is at once an artistic
manifesto for design under globalization and a workbook of essays, narratives and truisms investigating the ambiguous state of identity and branding today. Authored by Metahaven, a design and research think tank consisting of Daniel van der Velden, Vinca Kruk and Gon Zifroni, Uncorporate Identity is edited
by Marina Vishmidt and includes contributions by and collaborations with Armin Linke, Dieter Lesage, Chantal Mouffe, Peter van Ham, Regula Stämpfli, Michael Taussig, BAVO, Mihnea Mircan, Ruedi Baur, David Reinfurt, Adriaan Mellegers, Tina Clausmeyer and many others. Written for:
Designers, graphic artists, students of graphic design

April 2009: Architecture of Hope

Aarjen Oosterman (Ed) Architecture of Hope. To beyond or not to be - Regula Staempfli contributing editor, pdf
www.amazon.com, www.naipublishers.nl, www.bruil.info, www.archis.org

2006: Switzerland and the European Union

Clive Church, Swiss neutrality: incompatible with EU membership? A close, contradictory and misunderstood relationship

Daniele Ganser und Georg Kreis
November 2006, Routledge
978-0-415-37199-5

Among:
Regula Staempfli: Trained as a historian and with a doctorate in political science Regula Stämpfli is currently working both as a political scientist in Brussels and as a part time Professor at the Swiss College for Journalism in Lucerne. She has published several books and articles on political decision making processes in Switzerland and in the EU, most recently "From voiceless to voter. The ABC of Swiss Politics" published by Orell Füssli, Zürich 2003, (in German).She is also a well known political commentator on current affairs in Switzerland.